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Connecticut police close investigation of school sex abuse

A chapel is seen at the Pomfret School in Connecticut. (Wikimedia Commons)

HARTFORD, Conn. – A Connecticut State Police investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by teachers at a boarding school in the rural, northeastern corner of the state has been closed without producing any criminal charges.

The Pomfret School, one of several exclusive private schools that have been addressing past abuses, disclosed in September that an independent investigation had found four teachers likely engaged in sexual misconduct as far back as the early 1970s. At the time, the school said some of them had moved on to teach elsewhere and were still working with students.

The state police closed its investigation within the last month, Trooper Kelly Grant, a spokeswoman, said Tuesday. She said she did not know how many cases were involved but at least one victim did not want to pursue charges.

The names of the teachers have not been released. The school has not released a full report on the investigation it commissioned in contrast with decisions by some other boarding schools, including Choate Rosemary Hall, which last week provided a 54-page report from outside investigators that named educators accused of sexual misconduct.

Some alumni say Pomfret should be more forthcoming.

"They could have handled this much better from a transparency point of view," said Jeffrey Goldings, who graduated from Pomfret in 1983. "I think the school needs to be pressured to do more."

In their letter describing the findings for the investigation for the Pomfret community, school leaders said they chose not to release the names out of concern for the victims’ privacy. Disclosing the educators’ names, they said, would likely lead to identification of the victims or speculation about who they are.

One case of misconduct happened in the early 1970s, one in the 1980s, one spanned the 1980s to early 1990s and the fourth happened after 2000, the report said. The school said it regrets that some of those teachers received recommendations when they left to work elsewhere.

Boarding school tuition at Pomfret is $57,000 per year. The high school’s alumni include Nobel Prize-winning biochemist James Rothman.

A spokesman for the school, Dominic Slowey, said it did not have any comment on the closing of the police investigation. "The school completed its investigation last fall," he said, "and if anything new were to present itself the school would pursue it and would report it to appropriate authorities."